One of my biggest disappointment after coming to the US is mainstream science. Modern science I realized is so much filled with gas, in order for it to have any crude shape it simply is packed with speculative ideas of the fertile minds of the so called scientists. Two pieces of evidence are tied together through stories laced with scientific jargon. Studying in a Land Grant university in the US and rubbing shoulders with these so called academia, I was anything but disappointed.
But this post is not about modern science. It is about Christianity. My other biggest disappointment is Christianity as a religion. Right from the early Christian era of the 1st century, there are so many holes in the religion that I am surprised that believers think the Bible is the true word of God. I am not against Christians or Christianity. I am just disappointed at how the Christian religion evolved and how it is practiced today by mainstream Christians. Living in the boundaries of the Bible belt, most of the people here practice the Christian faith. However, in the past decade, I am yet to find a person who is seriously Christian in the sense that he or she is connected with Jesus in a spiritual way. All I here is dogmatic fundamentalism. Jesus is the way, otherwise eternal damnation or a very watered down materialistic form of Christianity. Recently I heard from a born again Christian, such material Christians are called "carnal Christians". I have not personally met any Christian who is practicing austerity for purifying one's existence.
Anyways, my point is Christian religion is simply a platform for either finding fault or for instant gratification. Honestly, I find this very disappointing. I also grew up in an Islamic state for eight years or so and honestly I found many Muslims piously submitting to Allah. Of course there is the terrorist aspect of it but that is a minority. Majority Muslims take their faith seriously or at least this has been my personal experience.
I hope I am not hurting anybody's sentiment, if so my sincere apologies. I just wanted to express my views on the Chrisitan faith.
Hare Krishna
4 comments:
Well, the Christianity you are most likely seeing in America is not historical Christianity. First, most American Christians are Protestants. It is a highly deformed version of Christianity, evolved from heresies. If you want to know historical Christianity you have to look to Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa where the Orthodox Christianity is. The Greeks, Aramaeans, Copts, Ethiopians, etc, practice the oldest form of Christianity and they fast 1/3 of the year. They also exist in the USA but they are a minority.
Thank you Jason. That was helpful and hopeful. Good to know there are genuine Christians. Of course where I live, I cannot find any such Christian. I like Jesus Christ very much and am attracted by his sacrifice for humanity. My post was not intended to generalize Christians but as you say the genuine ones are a minority!
You're welcome. If you ever get a chance you should go to an Orthodox church and you may be surprised how similar it and the worship can appear to a Vaisnava temple. The incense, offering of candles, general layout of the church (iconostais (images of God and saints) in front much like you are going to have darshan), some even do the same blessing: Where in an ISKCON temple you will see them touch the top of worshippers heads with the bottom of a tray for prasad some Orthodox churches also touch the eucharist chalice to their heads. Even the traditional church layout is a mandala, with a dome over the center and four apses facing the cardinal directions. Some even look like they are a Sikhara (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/Kolomenskoe_Ascension_Church_and_the_bell_tower_of_the_George_Church.jpg).
Thank you Jason. I have heard much about Catholicism (perhaps not so much about the Orthodox church). But whatever little i heard about Catholicism, I felt there was similarities with Vaishnavism regarding saints, chanting on rosary beads, praising the Lord etc. The Catholic church always intrigued me in that sense. I am sure the Orthodox Church (assuming it is Greek Orthodox) has so much of its tradition too where common lines can be drawn between the east and west!
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